Good morning, welcome to cnn this morning. Great to be with you. So glad youre here. Thank you for being here. Im amara walker. Thank you for waking up with us at 7 00 this morning. We do begin with some very tragic news and the devastation in hawaii. Officials now say at least 80 people are dead. That number is expected to rise. The search teams continue to comb through the destruction. Now hawaiis Attorney General is ordering a review of the states response. And today more republican president ial contenders get ready to make their case to voters at the Iowa State Fair. Well have the latest as the candidates kick their campaigns into high gear. Plus lays down the law to President Trump during a contentious hearing. Shes putting the former president on notice about any fu future inflammatory language or intimidation of witnesses. We begin with the grim news from hawaii, where those devastating wildfires have now claimed at least 80 lives. Officials warn the death toll will likely rise. Crews have not yet searched the inside of most of the buildings, so its still unclear how many people are missing. I fought wildfires in california. I was here yesterday when it flared up. I have never seen something ravage so fast. The only public road in and out of there was open briefly to let people see what has become of their homes, but authorities closed it a short time later. Now there is growing criticism over how authorities handle d te early 340e789s of the wildfires as flames spread quickly across the island. The Attorney General is now ordering a review of the states response leading up to the fires. No warning sirens were activated, which critics say cost untold lives. Thats not the only tconcern about the wildfire preparedness. Cnns pam brown has more. Even as other documents show officials knew they lack ed resources to prevent and fight fires. We had advanced notice coming into the summer. The winds, low humidity, any ignition would have sparked a big fire, and thats exactly what we saw. Reporter in a state report Ranking National disasters, officials classified the Wildfire Risk to human life as low in this colorcoded chart. The assessment coming years after Hurricane Lane fanned the flames of fires in Hawaii Ravaging Maui in 2018. That perfect storm of conditions highlighted the threat and how unprepared officials in hawaii were dealing with such a disaster, with a county report noting Hurricane Lane made small fires swell and stretch Public Safety resources with strong winds grounding air support. That storm should have been a wakeup call, according to this Planning Document from hawaiis Emergency Management agency. Other state and local documents show hawaii lagged behind in preparedness for the devastating wildfires playing out now that have killed more than 50 people, left countless people missing and triggered widespread evacuations. A cruel deja vu for some residents. Four years ago, we had another hurricane. We lost our house in the fire. Rebuilt, and what happened yesterday is killing me right now. We just lost our house again. Twice in four years. Reporter a 2021 report also makes the troubling point that despite the increasing number of wildfires, Fire Prevention was given, quote, short shift in the department of fire and safety. The plan also included, quote, nothing about what can and should be done to prevent fires, which is called a significant oversight. Given how catastrophic this event was, i think there will be a lot of pressure on the state and other organizations to improve their Fire Prevention actions that they are taking at the statewide level. Reporter the fires come as maui has faced increasing Drought Conditions in recent years contributing to warnings like this in a webinar from the hawaii wildfire management organization. Hawaii has a big wildfire problem. We are on par with the most fireprone states in the western u. S. The impacts of fire are broad and long lasting. Reporter now residents are left to rebuild again as the threat of future disasters looms with no clear plan in place. I mean, i know what i need to do. We have done it before. It just sucks. Its still unclear whether they could have reduced the devastation we have seen from the wildfires given its intensity and speed. As for responsibility, the governor of hawaii tells cnn the responsibility falls on all of us. Back to you. Pam, thank you. Newly released video shows the horror of the fires as people tried to escape. The video from the coast guard shows the vau of the fire on wednesday. Coast guard crews were able to rescue 17 people who fled into the ocean to etc. Scape the spreading flames. And take a look at this tiktok video. It appears to show some those people in the water after they were forced to jump in to try to save themselves from the flames we should say that cnn has not been able to determine the source of the video or independently verify the video, but it does give you a sense of what from the people were dooel ing with. Winds created an incredibly chaotic situation. We have to walk somewhere over there by the beach. Not like this. No, not like this. Its frightening because you look at how choppy the waters are. We know that Hurricane Dora was churning in the pacific. You have to keep that in mind as people were jumping into extremely choppy waters. And just to hear the terror. Gloria is there in honolulu. Whats the latest . Reporter it is really so devastating to listen to that video, to watch the video and hear the pan in peoples voices. You can tell how desperate they are trying to flee those flames. In the last several days, just the amount of damage and devastation is really starting to come into focus, as we get more and more video and images coming out of the area. 80 miles to the west of here, that is where the majority of the damage has taken place. Now lets start with the latest. We know that fema officials equipped with cadaver dogs are going to be searching the structures that have been left behind. So far, many of the bodies that have been recovered have been found outside of the structures that have burned. And officials here have said that they are awaiting the arrival of fema teams to search the inside of many of those structures. 80 people have lost their lives so far. We are expecting that number to increase. Now the public road in and out of lahaina was opened up to residents yesterday. People are desperate to sigh trice to get back to assess the damage, connect with their friends and love d ones to see whats left, if anything, of their property, their businesses, their livelihoods really. That road shortly after it was opened up had had to be closed back up because there was such a buildup of people and traffic that led officials to have to close it back up. I want to talk about the fire. So far 85 of the fire has been contained. Overnight, we had another fire that was burning in the western part of the island. That triggered some evacuations. The good news there is that the fire has been completely contained and that people are no longer being evacuated. Now the last point here is about the people of hawaii and the people of honolulu, who have been trying to come together to support and give donations and help to those who desperately need it. Theres frustration thats starting to build because people are desperate for help. Im standing in front of the Convention Center here in honolulu. They have been housing some of the evacueeses that have been flown out of the island. As you mentioned at the beginning there, theres now a review that is going to be conducted to try to understand the positions that were made by officials, why some of the sirens were not deployed in order to warn residents of maui that danger was fast approaching. We have heard so many witness accounts who told us that their flames were basically oat their door as they were trying to get out. It just shows that they really had no time, no warning. They just had to get out and some jumping into the water. So traumatic. Thank you. So there have been many dramatic accounts of those who escaped the fires. We want to show you Satellite Images to give you a sense of before and after the wildfires. It is incredible to wrap your heads around. Entire neighborhoods, homes, businesses, all destroyed. Listen to how some residents recounted the horrifying experiences. We all got in the ocean. We saw a floating board that we hung on to. We were out there float ing, cas blowing up. We stepped out of my front door and it was just hundreds of feet of Black Smoke Engulfing the town. It was everything i could do to gather my kids in two minutes to get out of the house. We ran out of the house with no shoes. It was just a lot. Massive plumes of smoke in that video. For more information on how you can help hawaii wildfire victims, go to cnn. Com impact. Turning to other news this morning, lets talk about iowa. Iowa basking in the political spotlight. President ial hopefuls are flocking to the state in des moines to try to court voters and iowas republican governor. The governor put out the welcome mat, but shes not endorsing a republican candidate, at least not yet. Chief National Affairs correspondent jeff zeleny has more. Reporter Governor Reynolds reveling in the Iowa State Fair and the republican president ial race. Shes at the center of both. Five months of the Iowa CaucusesRing The Bell of the campaign. This is a metaphor for all the candidates in the race. It is. Get them to participate and do what they need to do. Reporter shes showering all republican hopefuls with attention sizing up the field along the way. But staying neutral, at least for now. Its really important they feel that they have a fair shot and they are welcome here in iowa. I want iowans to have a chance to interact with them. Youre not ruling out potentially an endorsement at the end. I dont think you should never say never. Well wait and see what happens. I made it clear im probably looking at neutral. Especially at the beginning of this. Its naturally going to start to narrow. Then well take a look at where its at. Its early for that. Reporter reynolds wants republicans to find the strongest candidate to win back the white house. She believes the race is far from settled. Its so early. Paem people are paying so much attention to the national polls. Its just not reflective of kind of what im hearing from iowans as im traveling around. You think there could be surprises . Theres always surprises. Its just part of the prost. I cant think of one caucus where there hasnt been a surprise. Reporter for most shes byebye hosting the republican hope fuls and basking in their accolades. The best governor in the entire country kim reynolds. Reporter she invited the candidates to join her on stage at the fair. All said yes except former President Trump. Hes been lashing out taking credit for reynolds selection and attacking her for not supporting him. Reynolds, iowas first female governor, smiled and took exception to that. Its actually iowans who made the decision to elect me in a really tough year. 2018 was not a good year for republicans. I squeaked by. Reporter the 2018 midterms were, in part, a referendum on trump. Last year she won reelection by nearly 19 points. As remarkably popular among republicans. a73a■p■792rgm. 3w®vv4 part of[ instead of looking for americas future, trump is busy attacking republican governors. Reporter her once close relationship with trump has grown more complicated. You think republicans are see him as the inevitable nominee . I think its early. Our job is not necessarily to pick the winner, but to narrow the field. Thats what the caucus has done. Well have more on the Iowa State Fair throughout the show today. Thank you. The federal prosecutor who has been investigating hunter biden since 2019 has now been given more authority. David wies has just been appointed a Special Counsel in the case. Attorney general Merrick Garland granted the new authority after plea talks fell apart. Upon considering his request and the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter. I have concluded that it is in the Public Interest to appoint him as Special Counsel. He has been granted ultimate authority over this matter, including the responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges. Im joined by shan wu, a defense attorney and a former federal prosecutor. A always great to see you. Good morning. Why now . Why elevate the u. S. Attorney who has been on this case for four years investigating hunter biden . Why is he being elevated to Special Counsel right now . Do you see this as Merrick Garland vowing to political pressure . Its hard to know what he maybe privy to, but at least from the outward aexperience, the answer to your question is we dont know. It doesnt seem like anything has changed. According to both Merrick Garland and david wies, wies had full authority to do whatever he needed in the case. In fact, he actually said that he had not asked to be appointed Special Counsel previously, but there is a term called Special Attorney where a Current Justice Department prosecutor can be given authority to bring cases outside of his normal jurisdiction, in his case, outside of delaware. So its hard to understand why either they felt he needed to become Special Counsel versus the status he had already been in for the last five years. Certainly, the complete collapse of that plea deal did not help matters. He certainly is now looking at the possibility of trying the case and if they tried the case, it wouldnt be in delaware, but again, he could have done that originally. So is a trial more likely for hunter biden . Or is a plea deal out of the question at this point . I dont think a plea deal is out of the question. It almost never is in prosecutions because most of them resolve by plea deals, but certainly, the deal they originally had almost seems like i at an impasse going forward. From a defense standpoint, obviously, they dont want hunter biden to face more charges and have the uncertainty of going to a trial, but on the other hand, i also think the defense is probably saying, look, if you really want after five years to try this case on these charges you came up with, fine, lets go for that. It just seems unlikely they are going to find something new after five years of going at this. So from one Special Counsel case to another, lets talk about trump now. This protective order, shan, what is in it . What would constitute some of the information and how would it limit what trump can and cannot say in welcome public . Right now, what constitutes Sensitive Information sort of seems most of the evidence trump would be getting including transcripts, Staumts Fstatement from the witnesses, theres certainly just cause to be concerned that he might use that delay that could be dangerous or intimidating to the witnesses. We have seen lots of examples of that, even in the Georgia Situation where the Election Workers were harassed. Given his kinds of statements, that is a concern. The difficulty here is that by only attacking the Sensitive Information, it forces the fight to how to define the term sensitive. And no doubt, the defense is going to have a disagreement with the prosecution over what actually is sensitive. The Critical Point here from the judges Point Of View, from the prosecutions Point Of View is to get the ball rolling. To do that, they need to have the protective order in place so that the discovery can start flowing to the defense side. Shan wu, were out of time. Thank you so much for joining us. Still ahead for us, unimaginable horror in ukraine caught on videoafter Russia Strikes a hotel where a childrens camp was being held. Well have the latest. Plus President Biden to expand Background Checks for gun purchases. More on that. Except the hours that youre sleeping. So why do we leave so much untatapped potential on the tab . This is a next level bed, for a next level youou. My circadian rhyththm is kickig your Circadian Rhythms butt its not a competition. I know, but im still winning so, it is a competition. Save 50 on the sleep Number Limited Edition smart bed. Plus, 36month financing on select smart beds. Shop now only at sleep number. Made it smell like dave was in his happy place. The Massage Chair at the mall. But. He wasnt. Gain flings with oxi boost and febreze. Wherever you go. Wherever you stay. All you need is one key. Earn and use rewards across expedia, hotels. Com, and vrbo. Mom hey cheap flight alert daughter hawaii can we go . 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